September 14, 2008, the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, was originally a day of family reunion, however, for Chinese basketball, it was a sad day. On this morning, "Asia's no. 1 center" Mu Tiezhu died of illness at the age of 59.
Speaking of Mu Tiezhu, people of our previous generation may already be familiar with: 2.28 meters tall, 160 kilograms of weight, 52 sizes of shoes, this magical big man has created one miracle after another in his basketball career, under his leadership, Chinese basketball rushed out of Asia and won the first Asian Games championship of Chinese basketball.
He also led the Bayi men's basketball team at that time to defeat the American Collegiate Star United twice, and in a game against Suzhou, he alone scored 80 points...
For this hall-level basketball leader, we naturally have a sacred attitude to look up to him, but after retirement, Mu Tiezhu can enjoy the treatment of deputy division level, you must know that in that era, only the retirement of leadership figures had such preferential treatment.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > picked up the girder and led Chinese basketball to Asia</h1>
In 1949, Mu Tiezhu was born in a poor family in Heze, Shandong Province, and in order to live, he came to Xinjiang to join his sister and became a young man.
Three years later, he was discovered by the secretary of the Dongming County Sports Committee during a home visit, so he went to the Shandong Sports Team to play basketball, but within a few days, Mu Tiezhu was returned to the Dongming County Sports Committee.
The reason is: Mu Tiezhu has no formal sports training, can not represent the basketball team to play, the National Sports Commission learned about Mu Tiezhu's situation, used 20 old basketballs from the Dongming County Sports Committee to get Mu Tiezhu.
At the beginning, just arrived at the National Sports Commission, Mu Tiezhu followed an athletics coach, and never touched basketball, until the Huangshi Sports Committee in Hubei accepted him, that is, the former Bayi basketball team captain and head coach Yu Bangji, he was very optimistic about Mu Tiezhu and made up his mind to train him well.
However, Mu Tiezhu did not have basketball sports talent and foundation at the beginning, and even compared to other basketball players, because of different physical conditions and not very good quality, just running around the basketball court will throw up.
Later, under the leadership of Yu Bangji, he helped him carry out systematic basketball training. At least 10,000 meters a day, insisting on more than 20 years, with the excellent height advantage coupled with the increasingly mature technology obtained by hard work, Mu Tiezhu successfully joined the Bayi team and played the main position.
Mu Tiezhu is very good at attacking the inside line, and in the game, he is mainly responsible for strong rebounding and blocking, and he has made a huge contribution in this regard.
Secondly, Mu Tiezhu's large hand can hold the ball with one hand, making his ball control ability first-class, and he is not losing to others at all in terms of passing.
In the game, Mu Tiezhu always cooperates with the outside players, and can create shooting opportunities for the attack of the inner and outer lines, which is also the result of mu Tiezhu and the team's hard training.
In 1975, the eighth Asian Championship was held in Bangkok, Thailand, China and South Korea met in the final, the game situation was very anxious, at this time Mu Tiezhu provoked the girder, he shouted to the people present: You just manage the perimeter, rebounding I pack!
Koreans can't play dirty, the opposing players in the snatching of the ball, secretly invaded Mu Tiezhu, but Mu Tiezhu always held back and ignored it, after repeated provocations, the Thai overseas Chinese watching the game on the sidelines were angry first, a group of people rushed to the field, chasing the Korean player is a violent beating.
At that time, the national team, forward Zhang Weiping and center Mu Tiezhu and called the double male, Mu Tiezhu was the main inside Zhang Weiping outside, the two cooperated seamlessly, and the average net victory over the opponent was more than 60 points per game.
In the final, he averaged more than 40 points per game, helping The Chinese team win the 1977 Asian Championship and the 1978 Asian Games.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" > establish diplomatic relations with balls, opening up a new situation in China</h1>
Since the famous table tennis diplomacy in 1971, the relations between China and the United States have eased, and the table tennis diplomacy also shows that sports competition can promote relations between the two countries to a certain extent and further accelerate the process of establishing diplomatic relations.
In April 1979, the U.S. team composed of national college star players visited China, and the Bayi team represented China in a friendly basketball match with the United States team.
The slogan of the Bayi team: especially able to endure hardships, especially able to fight, especially able to fight.
The main force of the Bayi team during this period was center Mu Tiezhu, Guo Yonglin, Kuang Lubin, Wu Xinshui and Xing Weining, who were also the main players of the national team at that time.
In the face of opponents who are physically stronger than their own, Mu Tiezhu is mainly responsible for guarding below the rebound, and other players must play fast and flexible, and the players play smoothly at the beginning with tacit cooperation.
Mu Tiezhu attacked from the inside, relying on his height advantage and has always been a trained basket in the usual training process, and successfully intercepted the opponent's ball many times, and finally the Bayi team won 104-96.
However, the American team did not accept defeat and proposed a second confrontation, the Bayi team played again in the case of Wu Xinshui's injury, and once again defeated the American team 72-69.
Although both games are friendly matches, the significance for China and the United States is not simple, for our Chinese, this is an exciting victory, and Mu Tiezhu is also remembered by the world basketball world.
In 1976, China and Japan were in the honeymoon period of normalization of diplomatic relations, and the exchanges between the two countries from non-governmental to official were very frequent, and it was also in this year that the Chinese men's basketball team that dominated Asia was invited to visit Japan.
Mu Tiezhu is the focus of japanese attention, every basketball game is full, and many people come for him. In a live broadcast match, when Mu Tiezhu hit the ball, the commentator did not call him by name, but blurted out: Tokyo Tower turned around and shot two points!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="12" > do your best to exchange health for basketball</h1>
In 1987, the 38-year-old Mu Tiezhu finally retired after dedicating the best time of his life to Chinese basketball. Basketball has brought him not only countless honors and fame, but also countless injuries.
He played for the national team for 14 years, running 10,000 meters a day according to the regular training volume, running 51.1 million meters alone, which is equivalent to 1.2 laps around the earth, and this height is equivalent to 5775 times to the summit of Mount Everest.
Years of high-intensity training have made Mu Tiezhu's body overdrawn. When he was playing, Mu Tiezhu had more than 200 heartbeats on the court, and his heart was often overloaded, so he later suffered from heart disease.
When he was young, in order to improve his technical level as soon as possible, Mu Tiezhu often worked overtime to train, whether it was a weekend or not, there must be his figure in the training hall, and the hard training and extraordinary physique brought great trouble to Mu Tiezhu's body.
After retiring in 1987, Mu Tiezhu had to give up his coaching job due to physical reasons and concentrate on recuperating at home.
He suffers from lumbar disc herniation, venous embolism in the legs, and cardiovascular diseases, and when he is severe, he has to be supported to walk. Many lifestyle habits have also changed, quit being greasy, not smoking or drinking, just to have a healthy body.
Until the Mid-Autumn Festival on September 14, 2008, perhaps in order to spend more time with his family, Mu Tiezhu did not go out to exercise in the morning, but rode a bicycle on the fitness equipment at home for a while.
But when he rode for a while, he felt very tired, and his son Mu Tong saw the situation and carried out rescue on the spot, and then rushed to the hospital for rescue, but still could not be rescued.
"The day before he died, a few of our comrades in the old Bayi men's basketball team were still partying together to celebrate Mu Tiezhu's birthday, and he also ate cake that day, and we all felt that he was very good in all aspects of his body, and who could have imagined leaving the next day." One of the old Bayi men's basketball players recalled.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="14" > ordinary family, ordinary life</h1>
At the age of 30, Mu Tiezhu had not yet established a family, and the leaders of the Bayi team were very concerned about it, and by chance, a female comrade took the initiative to write a letter to Mu Tiezhu.
After the head coach learned of this incident, he specially took the female comrade to the team and arranged for her to meet with Mu Tiezhu. This female comrade later became Mu Tiezhu's wife, Wang Zhuanhong.
Wang Zhuanhong is 1.72 meters tall, loved to play basketball when she was young, and was also the main player of her factory basketball team. She happened to see the Chinese team win the Asian Games men's basketball championship on the only 9-inch black-and-white TV in the house.
Wang Zhuanhong felt that Mu Tiezhu had won glory for the People's Liberation Army, so she paid special attention to him and wrote a letter to Mu Tiezhu in order to express congratulations.
Later, the two got married, and the sports brigade gave them a house as a wedding room, and the two simply added a few pieces of furniture and held a simple banquet, so they spent their lives together.
In their married life, the two hardly had any quarrels, and even if there were quarrels sometimes, Mu Tiezhu would take the initiative to bow his head. Later, after Mu Tiezhu retired, it was his wife who took care of him, and she was also the warmest harbor for her husband.
When the reporter asked Wang Zhuanhong whether she regretted marrying Mu Tiezhu, Wang Zhanhong said that she had never, and she felt that marrying him was a very lucky thing and very happy.
After the two married, they had a son and a daughter, the son Mu Tong was 1.8 meters tall, a white-collar worker, working hard in a company, and the daughter Mu Rong worked in the bank and lived a fairly good life, only 1.73 meters tall.
Neither of them is very prominent, and it may be because of this reason that neither of them has inherited their father's career and taken the road of sports, to which Mu Tiezhu said that they have their own path to go.
The whole family lives a plain life, usually his son Mu Tong will also play basketball and pay attention to basketball, but his favorite star is not his father, but an NBA star, his daughter and wife's favorite basketball star is O'Neal, Mu Tiezhu said with a smile: "Maybe the 'big head' of the two of us is very similar." ”
After Mu Tiezhu officially retired, he enjoyed the treatment of deputy division, and he rarely appeared in public in a low-key manner, only playing small roles in three movies, and also acted in sketches, shot advertisements, and partnered with well-known actors such as Song Dandan.
Acting in the movie made Mu Tiezhu feel particularly fresh, he played a security guard in "Silly Manager" and "One Night Singer", and played a thug hired by drug traffickers in "Black Corridor", which may be too few scenes, so it did not leave any deep impression on the audience.
After retirement, Mu Tiezhu lived in an old house near the University of Science and Technology Beijing, living in the same building as the Bayi team's succumbs A Di, Liu Yudong, and Li Nan.
Because the roof of this building is up to 3 meters high, it can walk freely at home. His life is very idyllic, with Tao Yuanming's leisurely "picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence, leisurely seeing the South Mountain", nothing to play chess, play cards, and sometimes rub mahjong, but the level is not high, so play less.
In addition, he likes to fish, like some outdoor activities, close to nature, of which climbing is a daily compulsory course, every day he always takes some time to climb the Baiwang Mountain behind his home.
Mu Tiezhu liked cars, but he drove a small car, so he chose the Mitsubishi Pajero jeep.
A reporter once asked him how fast he was driving, and he jokingly said: "From Beijing to Harbin, you can make a round trip a day." "He likes to drive a car, and every time he goes back to his hometown in Shandong, he drives his wife from the road.
He led the Chinese men's basketball team to Asia, let more people around the world see the Chinese men's basketball team, used his superb basketball skills to cooperate with his teammates to play perfect results again and again, conquered the fans of other countries, and indirectly promoted the process of establishing diplomatic relations between countries.
When a generation of stars falls, everyone will feel sorry for it.